Path of the Winding Way
The Path of the Winding Way is one of the many Schools of Magic, but it
is certainly not one of the easiest to follow. It brings great power, but also
periods of extreme weakness. It is also a highly competetive path.
The best known follower of this path is Margali Szardos, the mother of
Amanda Sefton and adoptive mother of Excalibur's Nightcrawler. The
only known other follower was the magic-user Gravemoss, but there should
be between 30 to 60 other followers.
Followers of the Path of the Winding Way can be pictured as being on a
sort of spiral rising upwards, which definines their power-levels. The mages
are always on the opposite level of power with regards to the mage ahead
of them on the path. It is a slow way up since no-one can pass the one
ahead of them, the only way to do this is to remove him or her from the
path.
Game Information:
Magic-users on the path of the Winding Way are subject to fluctuations
in their power levels. The higher you get, the greater these fluctuations
will be and also the faster periods of high power will follow those of low
power. The path can be devided in at least 10 sections, each with many
turns. In game terms it depends upon the rise of the ranks of a characters
spells as with normal power advancement, but certain things may speed
up a characters advancement, this is related to the removal of mages
ahead of them on them path. The sections are listed in the tabel below
with the Max. spell-rank being the rank the character must have in at
least 3 spells to reach this level in normal ways.
| Section: |
Max. rank: |
Time in each cycle: |
Min. effect: |
Max. effect: |
| 1 |
Ty |
1 year |
-1 CS |
+1 CS |
| 2 |
Gd |
8 months |
-1 CS |
+1 CS |
| 3 |
Ex |
6 months |
-1 CS |
+1 CS |
| 4 |
Rm |
4 months |
-1 CS |
+1 CS |
| 5 |
In |
2 months |
-1 CS |
+1 CS |
| 6 |
Am |
1 month |
-1 CS |
+1 CS |
| 7 |
Am (10 spells) |
2 weeks |
-2 CS |
+2 CS |
| 8 |
Mn |
9 days |
-2 CS |
+2 CS |
| 9 |
Mn (10 spells) |
3 days |
-2 CS |
+2 CS |
| 10 |
Un |
1 day |
-3 CS |
+3 CS |
The character spends the duration in the table per CS difference. So a
character from section 8 spends 9 days at normal level, then 9 days at
+1 CS, 9 days at + 2 CS, again 9 days at +1 CS and 9 days at normal
level, then 9 days at -1 CS, 9 days at -2 CS etc.
The effects in Column Shift is applied to all power ranks in magical
abilities and all magical feats. Also effected is the characters Endurance
(and thus health) and Psyche.
It is speculated that there exist levels above 10 but it is not known how
to reach them.
Unnatural Advancement:
There exist 2 ways to advance unnaturally fast on the path. The first
one is the death of the mage directly before you on the path, the
second one is the use of the Ritual of Removal.
The difficulty of removing the ones in front of you is the fact that
when the magic of the path of the Winding Way is used against
someone other on that path all bonusses are negated and the attacker
is effected as if in the low powered part of his cycle. This means
that personal attacks are extremely difficult to perform. To overcome
this problem recently a few magic-users have sought to use the
Soulsword to kill the ones in front of them. Margali seems to have
succeded. You can however voluntarily step down and let someone
pass.
The Ritual of Removal is one of the best guarded secret of the mages
that posses it and only one copy is rumored to exist. This extremely
difficult ritual can remove a mage to a lower section of the path.
About an avarge of 4 mages must be passed before one advances to
the next section, when this happenes by unnatural means the spells
are increased to the needed ranks, but this also means the magic-user
may freely be hunted by other mages of the path.
When someone drops in sections the power ranks are decreased.
A Side effect of an increase in sections seems to be that even the
mage with the best intentions slowly gets corrupted by a lust for power.
Whenever one increases in section the mage should make a Psyche
FEAT. When failed he should slowly begin to lust for more power. In some
games this is a common fenomenon so the Judge could also decide
the player to play this effect out normally.
Margali is mentioned in the Limbo section.
Stats and powers are given for normal levels.
Gravemoss
F A S E R I P
Gd Gd Gd Rm Ex Rm In
10 10 10 30 20 30 40
Health:60 Karma:90
Resources:Gd Pop:0
Known Powers:
Gravemoss is a master sorcerror with the following abilities.
Magic: Other spells may be cast at Am level.
-Possesion: Mn, gravemoss can posses a body and use
all of it's powers at normal effect, he can also still use
normal magic.
-Dimensional Travel: Mn
-Pyrokinesis: Mn
-Eldrith Attack: Am
-Psi-Screen: Mn
-Emotion Control: Mn
Talents: Occult Lore
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